Author: roymorgansocial

Google doubles down on claims news bargaining code will break search

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Miranda Ward
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 7-Jan-21

Google Australia has repeated previous claims that the federal government’s proposed bargaining code between traditional media companies and digital companies will ‘break’ the way its search function works. Google does not object to the principle of paying to support journalism, but contends it should be done differently to what the government is proposing. It argues that its $1.3 billion global licensing program is the best mechanism for it to negotiate with media publishers and pay for their content, while it contends the government’s code will favour some media companies over others.

CORPORATES
GOOGLE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC

PM rejects election drive as Labor clears deck for early poll

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Richard Ferguson
The Australian – Page: 4 : 6-Jan-21

A recent newspaper article has claimed that most Coalition MPs are expecting a federal election to be held between August and November. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on 5 January that his view on the government going full term had not changed, with Morrison noting the election is not due until 2022. He said he had enough to do in 2021 in dealing with the pandemic and helping the economy to recover to think about an election. Having recently shelved former leader Bill Shorten’s controversial franking credit policies, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has arguably put Labor on an "early election footing"

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Julian Assange’s lawyers fear offer to return to Australia would result in extradition

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Samantha Maiden
Herald Sun – Page: Online : 6-Jan-21

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could return to Australia if a US appeal against a UK judge’s decision not to extradite him to the US fails. However, lawyers for Assange claim the US could simply seek to have him extradited from Australia if he chose to return to the country of his birth, and they have called on Australia to ask the US to drop its case against him entirely. Were Assange to be extradited to the US at some point, he would be facing charges that carry a maximum penalty of up to 175 years in prison.

CORPORATES
WIKILEAKS

Qantas plans US, UK flights for July, subject to borders, vaccines

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Karen Sweeney
The New Daily – Page: Online : 6-Jan-21

Qantas has begun selling tickets for overseas flights for as early as July, despite increased COVID-19 rates overseas. A Qantas spokesman noted that the resumption of international flights was dependent on vaccine rollouts and border reopenings, while Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has observed that it will be the government that decides when international travel can resume; he noted the government is working on travel arrangements with countries that have low infection rates.

CORPORATES
QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN

High LNG price sends chill up buyers’ spines

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 16 : 6-Jan-21

Credit Suisse energy analyst Saul Kavonic says it is possible that there will be a return to double-digit domestic gas prices in 2021. His comments are on the back of North Asian LNG spot prices rising to a six-year high, due to a combination of a supply squeeze and freezing winter temperatures, while the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is predicting a LNG netback price in February of $15.52 a gigajoule, 78 per cent higher than January.

CORPORATES
CREDIT SUISSE (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION, WOODSIDE PETROLEUM LIMITED – ASX WPL, ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO

In NSW thousands in isolation as cluster threatens regions

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Kieran Gair
The Australian – Page: 5 : 6-Jan-21

New South Wales recorded four new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on 5 January, while an additional case will be added to the total for 6 January. The additional case is a young man who travelled some thousands of kilometres in rural NSW while unknowingly infectious, visiting towns such as Orange and Broken Hill. Shoppers who attended the Berala Woolworths between 20 December and 31 December have been urged to get tested and self-isolate until they get the result, while people from ‘hotspot’ suburbs linked to the Berala cluster will be fined $1,000 if they try to attend the Test at the SCG.

CORPORATES

PM powerless on border closures, defends slow rollout

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 6-Jan-21

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he hopes lower numbers of COVID-19 cases in Sydney in recent days could see border restrictions between Victoria and New South Wales "eased as soon as possible". However, he has conceded he does not have the power to stop premiers and chief ministers closing their borders for health reasons. Morrison rejected criticisms that the federal government was taking too long to rollout a COVID-19 vaccine, saying that the Therapeutic Goods Administration needs to rigorously examine vaccine testing data, while vaccine batches in Australia will also need further testing.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Victoria restrictions could delay Grand Prix

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Tessa Akerman
The Australian – Page: Online : 6-Jan-21

Police minister Lisa Neville says the Victorian government is having ongoing discussions about the timing and staging of the Melbourne Grand Prix with Australian Grand Prix Corporation and Formula 1. The race is normally held in late March, but may be rescheduled because of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions. Meanwhile, a new quarantine hotel for international tennis players coming to the Australian Open has had to be secured, after some of the penthouse owners at the Westin Melbourne, which had been due to host the players, threatened Supreme Court action over COVID-19 concerns.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX CORPORATION

Pioneering economics writer Alan Wood dies aged 76

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Andrew Clark
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 6-Jan-21

It has been revealed that highly regarded economics journalist Alan Wood passed away on 27 December at the age of 76 after a short illness. He began his career as a copy boy, before moving on to become a cadet and then finally a graded journalist. He worked for ‘The Australian’, ‘The Australian Financial Review’, and ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’, and his work has been attributed as playing a significant part in the push to reduce tariffs and open up the Australian economy in the 1970s and 1980s.

CORPORATES

SolGold boss wants to end brawl with BHP, Newcrest

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Peter Ker
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 16 : 6-Jan-21

SolGold MD Nick Mather says he wants to try to mend his strained relationship with BHP and Newcrest, which are SolGold’s two biggest shareholders. Both companies expressed concern during 2020 about his approach to governance and funding of SolGold, and he says he would like to create a more collaborative and constructive relationship with them in 2021. BHP and Newcrest are clearly not the only SolGold shareholders unhappy with Mather, with 44.7 per cent of its register voting against his re-election to the SolGold board at its AGM in mid-December.

CORPORATES
SOLGOLD PLC, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, NEWCREST MINING LIMITED – ASX NCM